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The HUDDLE is where the flooring industry can get together and talk about everything! Lead by Paul Stuart from Go Carerra who is joined by Daniel and Jose Gonzalez from Preferred Flooring.

https://www.preferredflooringmi.com

https://www.stuartandassociates.com

what's up floring family welcome to the Huddle come at you every Tuesday except

this one at 3 pm Central to discuss maintaining forward progress in your

flooring career special episode I'm up in Grand Rapids with the uh preferred flooring

company making up of a great group of people but with me as always is Daniel

and Jose Gaz what's up guys so um today's episode is

uh I'll break it down a little different than the topic it's really about coming together as one as as a installation

group and and as a greater industry um speaking of that we had a great round

table last night with a bunch of installers here it was absolutely

fantastic uh had a great time some some people zoomed in somewhere here live uh

just an open Q&A and the purpose was to get input um from the installer

perspective you know on things that go Carrera can do to uh you know further

improve the life of the installer what what other uh tools or uh features

benefits deals all that kind of stuff so some great stuff came out of that and

excited to get back to witcha and uh you know decode with my team and talk to uh

you know Daniel and Jose as part of that and uh you know kind of come up with

some programs and some things that that we've uh gathered from that so it was really cool I'm glad everybody came if

you're in the audience at the moment and you were here last night thanks for coming uh they brought in some tacos

from I got to give a shout out to lailis uh yeah they they uh have the

best horn tacos that I've ever had and the corn tortillas did not fall apart

and I've told everybody about it so you might as well hear it too uh they were fantastic

anyway so today's topic is uh you know we we've touched on some of this stuff

in the past uh but it's always worth remembering that you know installers a

lot of times we have um a bit of a limited mindset from the perspective of like there's plenty of

work out there for all of us uh we attack I mean if you get on the Facebook groups you can see there's there's guys

and and probably gals as well uh attacking you know the quality of other

people um I would love we were talking last night with some of the installers here I'd love for a for a

social uh platform where we come together and we're like hey I

see some things you know that maybe you see a picture of a of a project that you see some flaws in you're like hey man

how long you been doing that how long you been laying sheet Von or carpet or whatever it is and uh you know oh three

years well hey I got some I got some tips for you I've been doing it for a long time and I made some of those same

uh some some of those same mistakes if you want some you know some advice or um

you know mentorship or uh guidance or some access to trainings I mean just

more helpful um it doesn't really matter if you're commercial

residential uh hardwood sheet vonle whatever we're really in this for the same purpose you know um do good work at

least this is this is as I see it I'm sure everybody has their own reasoning here but uh from my perspective it's

like we're here to do good quality work in our Craft um I have a big heart for

like trying to raise our industry uh the respect of our industry where uh you

know we're not always um God I don't have a great word other than crap on uh

when it comes to commercial jobs from a scheduling perspective that we get our ample time to do our craft in the in the

the way that it should be done um and uh you know over all we make a

good living doing so um so the more we can share with one another that's going

to give us and and come together as a community and that's you know frankly what go career offers as a community of

installers um I think we can you know make some meaningful change with manufacturers make some meaningful

change where you know the specifications require a certain level of installer so

that you're competing with like uh quality installation professionals and you're not you know the one of the

toughest things in our industry is guys who have been doing it for many many years and um are highly efficient and

highly professional and so charge more for that that they're competing with someone who kind of just got started and

we all have to start somewhere but we should be competing with like quality um

you know installers and all that being said that's my opening spill

uh um what do you guys think like when it comes to this kind of you know we

just proved it last night we're doing it now like coming together as a community that right so even last night you know

we were talking a little bit before this it's we had guys here that we don't all

do the same thing right and then some of us did do the same thing but we're all

looking at each other as partners I'm going to lean on them when when I need help they're going to lean on us when when they need help and that that's the

way that the industry should be like um on Thursday on Thursday I'm going to go out to Indianapolis and help uh you know

a fellow installer with some some forbo he's like will you come out here please

just I don't want to mess this up and I'm like let me let me see what I can do

excuse me and I mean and I was talking to my wife about

it last night and I was like I'm I'm going to go out there and she's like why I said because if I asked him I knew he

would come over here and help us 100% especially bring tacos that dud we we'd have to make them and

Daniel's hitting on it too is uh you know when when you're coming up to the trades and nobody's there to have your

back and you are trying to make a living right and you you find a future it's a tough pill to

swallow feeling like you're in over your head on more than one discipline right

um but it's very comforting knowing that there's people to lean on in the industry that you can pick up the phone

and call a Paul call her Daniel call her Jose and say I might be in over my head I don't know do you have any information

or like I'm just not comfortable 100% I don't want to mess up come help brother

out help out it's just it wasn't it wasn't like that 20 years ago

it wasn't like that 10 years ago and to see that there is a shift because people

are starting to to lift our trade um it's it's it's a nice feeling nice warm

fuzzy feeling inside knowing that there are people out there um that want to see everyone else succeed right

um well part part of that's the work we're doing this is selfless I mean I

mean we don't get paid to be uh you know here every Tuesday you know shooting the

podcast and and you know it's not even necessary the the thing is is that we

want to give information freely where we can in our expertise I don't know

everything but what I do know I'm willing to share and try to help out and you guys have helped us and I've tried

to help you just as companies I mean you know on the company level of a flooring

contractor helping one another out um and I think that the installing Community ought to have even more of

that faing more of that like let's band together let's try to do good work

Elevate our trade I mean I've said this before on the podcast and I stand by it

I think our from a hand skills perspective flooring is one of the um

what probably the most demanding from a hand skills perspective and not not far

behind on a knowledge base I mean we got to know chemistry of different types of basically you got to be a scientist in

order to do commercial flooring and an engineer there's there's a lot of different aspects yeah I mean it takes a

lot of math skill it takes a lot of hand skill and it takes a lot of thought when you're doing a a complicated you know

pattern project or something so helping one another out coming together as an

industry and helping improve our day-to-day lives on projects that's like

that's part of the key you know um I love our general contractors I know you guys love yours but at the end of the

day we still have to uh realize that when we're on job sites with them that we have to we have

to have our time to do you know an effective project and an effective

installation buying materials getting them delivered to the to the site is part of the deal and then the most

important part no matter how pretty that project product looks for the project to

look pretty is the install and so um you know that's where we hope that the

podcast adds some value to people who are just getting started or some who maybe been in in the industry for a long

time but doesn't have uh you know there's always these little nuggets you can learn and I've learned from you guys

and I hope I've been able to bring some value to the table as well and then I love doing this podcast with you guys so

yeah i' would say that um you had mentioned the comments earlier

about uh you know about a platform where there could be conversation where you're building up and helping um and you're

absolutely right um we have a thing where we don't we go on a project that

that might not be performing the way it should or look the way it should we don't ever go on a project and Bash

another flooring installer we don't ever do that have we ever done that if I told you no I'd be lying right in my younger

my younger years yeah probably like I want you to look at me like like I'm better like I'm who you need um but as

you get a little bit older you realize it doesn't really do anything to make you look bad the I don't know under what

circumstances the installer had to do that install I don't know what skill set or knowledge base they had so it's hard

for me to go and Bash someone right even though they try to try coers it out of

you well is this done right how is this how would you have done right and it's just like hey no it's not about how I

would have done it it's about what what conditions were they installing under here at the time I've had plenty of

times dude I've been told we can't do additional floor pre and you're just going to have to lay it and that's going

to be what it is yeah we've been on job where where the other there there's multiple you know installers there and

then you walk over here and you see them like they were gluing right to jip creete and it's like what are you guys

doing they told us that we're not getting paid for any prep so we're just

installing yeah I mean we have done that and had to do that I mean like it was just that was the deal and if somebody

goes back and looks at that job in 5 years and is like and a new property manager making stuff up here but in a

scenario where it's a new manager or something over that property and they're like well what would you have done it's

easy to say at that point well I would have floated that damn floor out uh first off I would have skimmed it I

would have done this I would have done that you know I would have asked the sheet rocker to fix the wall so the base

isn't all we and I mean there's a lot that that you know I would have done well you're just not in the scenario and

it's impossible to um to do that so attacking situations or putting down

other installers um it just typically doesn't you know it doesn't turn out in favor of

you uh I like how you got you were talking about it uh last night I can't remember the scenario but it was more of

like well I'm not going to say what should have or shouldn't have been done uh I can't trying to remember that uh

conversation but it was basically like I'm not going to say but I can tell you what we need to do now kind of thing

yeah and um if that client is receptive to hearing the proper installation

techniques then awesome if they are not then you

know you could be made fun of in five years so it's like you know um so again

building one another up helping each other get trained you know if you know another installer that that needs a

helping hand I mean Daniel you're going out help and on the that flip side too if you are that installer that needs

help right it's nice to know that there's people out there where he just you know he he was he got in I mean we

started this conversation maybe a month ago where he's like I got this project that I'm looking at putting numbers to

where would you be at you know what all goes into it so that way he had an idea

and then all the way down to I got the project what tools do I need and then

getting down to the nitty-gritty like hey this project starts next week I'm

still not comfortable you know 100% will you come help me so that way I know that is going to be done right it it takes a

lot out of someone to actually be like I don't know what I'm doing will you come

help me it's it's a comfort thing too right like when when you have the basic

knowledge and the basic idea of the flooring and and the discipline that you're working on that's one thing but it's

applying that comfortably because you're second guessing yourself once you start second guessing your uh your knowledge

base you start overthinking and like oh I'm missing something because now now your thoughts and your process is scattered but and it's just one of those

things where Daniel could do it in his sleep he's done it a hundred times right and it's just like uh if someone was

here doing a a shower I would be I'd be more than happy to help I know a little

bit I don't know enough but I would I would I would be a fly on the wall I would be a helper and I'm pretty sure

I've offered to many people like hey if you have a project going on you just need extra hand I'll be a fly on the wall just to learn don't pay me no

nothing I like to learn um because I like to absorb information I know I'm

going to learn something rand's watching he says he's Lov that we're sitting across from each other this week yeah

across the country but across special guest who decided to join on his own

cogn there his brother was just here a few minutes ago was yeah that's funny this

is our our nephew Flo how's it going I myself they don't answer

back no your hand that's another thing too you guys uh you know safety right like so if we're talking about lifting

each other and and and building one another so that way we can all have careers safety is a huge part of it

um I'm going to ask him I know the answer how'd you cut yourself I was holding the scraper up and tightening

the screw with it up in the air I pulled it towards myself when someone was teaching you how to change the blade

what's the first thing they sold you keep it on the ground so yeah so

uh safety is important is the key listen and learn you can't you can't continue

success and continue getting better if you if you don't incorporate safety because then you get you get shy you

know you start steering away from the things that that hurt you and I think we talked a little bit about fear last

night right and in relation to to moving forward in life fear controls a lot of

your future decisions and what you do and that's one of the things too is if

you do a project in if if somebody does a for Bowl they don't have or does a

four bow install doesn't have any any help and and very little experience and it fails the chances of them going back

and trying and receiving another project or accepting another project um with that material is slim to none because

they already failed well the problem there is that you know it gives pretty much everybody a bad name I people start

pointing their fingers at the manufacturers right and and you have to start thinking in terms of their part of

this industry too and are there some products out there that are inferior

100% but you have to start giving even the the manufacturers the benefit of the doubt like they're not trying to

manufacture that product that's going to fail they're trying to manufacture good products and when you throw them under the

bus it's not a good look for you either yeah right it's always a partnership

it's I don't know why it failed it's not this is because of this product that's why I hate them it's we don't know why

let's start investigating and get down B because a lot of the the product that

you know we've ripped out and they're like I never want to use this product again it wasn't not the manufacturer's

fault it some of it wasn't even the installer's fault it it goes all the way down to the people that are doing the

maintenance on the products not cleaning it properly flooding it stuff like that so it's it's not only lifting your

fellow installer it's knowing that you know we're all in the same industry what can we do to all help each other out and

once you start looking at it from that mindset you actually have manufacturer is that if you call them for an issue

they W will 100% have your back because they know that you do the same for them yeah I've had plenty of times where

we've had to install what appears to be an install issue or a product failure a project I

should say uh issue and if you've taken

care of your vendor and you're because there's plenty of time times when we've

seen um a problem with a job and heard the same thing like I'm never using this product again I'm like there's so much

more to the performance of a product than just the manufacturing and there's more than just

installation you have your part to taking care of this facility as the

owner and site conditions and changing of site conditions I've got this Friday

I'm going out to uh look at a project where you know they they've got some bubbling issues on some um sheet Goods

vinyl sheet goods and and uh come to find out in this area of the facility

they completely turn off the the uh HVAC system every every break if it's

Christmas break spring break oh no summer they completely just shut it off and I'm like well you realize what that

does to the flooring that's not the manufacturer that's not the the product's fault

and it's also nothing that we could have done differently a year and a half ago

when we installed it so looking at uh looking at problems that way and and

being willing to kind of figure out what what the real issue is um and not

necessarily you know casting Stones as they say I think it's important to uh

figure it out I know that's off the off the rails a little bit from the original

discussion but it all back it all ties back to like working together to improve

the industry improve our reputation as a skilled trade in this industry and um

you know getting that respect I mean there's nothing better feeling to me than when we are like the 800 pound

gorilla on a job every once in a while you got a product that they're like the

Waring guys are coming in especially epoxy I like doing an epoxy epy because

it's like the epoxy guys are going to be here next Tuesday everybody has to get

out of here and I was like man I wish I had that pull with lvt square format you guys can he it out

yeah Square format can you guys start in this back closet over here do this room over

here install the shelving and everything and then you can install the FL so to

add on to what you you were saying about that them turning off the HVB and and some of what you learn you don't learn

in the book you learn over over time or or by by bumping elbows with with an

installed that's been in the industry for years there's a lot of scenarios that that can only come through

experience um and and you know it it sucks to find out the hard way but it

that's just the nature of the Beast sometimes uh like the she is bubbling up right like I'm pretty sure we've run

into that before and you know until we hit that we didn't know we thought we did something wrong but you know if it

did it right away the moisture that built up between that sheet vinyl affected the adhesive and there you go a

lot to it I guess that goes back to like the original discussion about how skilled our trade really is and the

science and the the science and the chemistry that you have to understand between different types of adhesives and

different backing systems uh we talk about that a lot and you know flooring's pretty unique that way um so my ploy to

all the uh audience uh to all the installers and companies as well value

the installation uh team that you have whether they're subs or hourly or both

um you know help find training it's one of the things at the flooring company

that I realize we could do better at is identifying where are uh guys and uh

where our team's deficient and uh addressing that through training I I

talk a lot about training and I believe in it and it's not that we don't do training but be more cognizant of where

the skills can be improved and what skill sets um uh maybe need a little bit

of work and then you know address those whether it's training in in house you

know company trainings or whether it's uh you know getting into an industry training but um all in all it's

it's important that we all realize that the company needs the installation community and the installation Community needs the companies and we got to Value

the companies we work for uh if you're an installer and companies we got to

Value the installation Community right I think if you look at like some of the groups that are focused more on like the

stores and you know the bigger contractors that that hire subs and then

you see a job go south and then they they're just in there bashing

the installer right when they didn't do their due diligence on what that installer is capable of and and S you

know it could have been a site visit when they first started and then you're

like oh maybe we got to back up a little bit because you said that you knew how to do this but you don't and what can we

do in order to get you there so because you don't want to just go through installers

like just cycling through them right you you want to make sure that they know

what is going on so that way when you need them they're there for you yeah

well and um cheapest isn't always the right you

know that the the old saying that uh the the wrong guy at the right price is

still the wrong guy you know yeah so so you know uh uh you want

to be cognizant to make sure that the skill of that of that person matches the skill requirement of

the job and that takes skill on your part as the company to assess that

that's what we do otherwise why wouldn't a GC just hire Subs themselves right and and some some of that is um I'm a face

Toof face conversation type of person right like I I like to have that real person reaction so some of it is when

you ask a question you know your answer right away if they comfortable or not I

mean the human face gives a lot away especially when you know you're asking them and they can't just try and Google

it real quick we were talking about that yesterday about stuff like that Jake's on here too what's up Jake what yeah

question you got he says uh starts with guys that deal with the customers to allow your helpers to see

you in action and just be being that person

that that's great at communication a lot of people don't don't have that strength

especially the younger people I think because we're in the this technology age

right where they grew up with technology everyone is just texting each other and you don't get a lot of that that face

to-face interaction with strangers and it's just a strength that you kind of have to have especially when you're

dealing with you definitely got to learn those communic rights especially on like the residential side I think it's very

important because you're dealing with that homeowner and you're going into that house and it's like this is my

pride this is what I've worked for my whole life yeah and then if you go in there and you don't know how to talk to

them or your body language is like really far off body or body

odor got to look to your leadership and and see someone doing it and then really

it's um following that example right well whether it's good or bad on the

other side of that you don't want to follow in the 90s when I started installing uh there was you know

obviously there were more installers in um they each of the mechanics even at

the hour when I worked by the hour um I had to pick it up a lot of

times because my mechan the mechanic I was working for didn't want to show me for fear of like me taking their

position or and it was just that that whole uh thing and it I I've read that

in the Facebook groups like you know you're training your replacement kind of thing come on like you're

not if if if you look at it that

way um I would I would challenge you to make sure that your that your skills are

where they need to be yourself you know what I mean like because if you're really really good somebody that you

train is not going to come just take your your stuff over um and that's one

of the things and I'm I'm proud to say that go career is trying to tackle is not having these new guys wrestle with

you know old experience and I don't I don't mean old in age but experienced

installers 40 Old 40 yeah 43 exactly well we we had a guy last night that

thought 43 was old so um but you know the you're not training your replacement

maybe eventually maybe when you want to be replaced but you know you're training

people to work alongside you and the way that eventually uh what I found out is

you got to gain the trust of that that uh installer that mechanic and once you

gain their trust then they're more than happy to help you so a word to the wise for both if you're working with the

mechanic is like give them time to to learn to trust you and then honor the

the time with them spend I mean if you're a new installer you ought to be with somebody for several years before

you think you're going to go out on your own and start doing something or even if you work by the hour trying to get in a

position where you're you know a lead or something like take your time make sure you're learning from these guys and go

alongside them I mean companies like ours you know we're hoping that our our our senior installers are are training

the other guys and then we move them aside them it's not a replacement it's like now we got two Crews and we can use

a bunch of Crews you know and not only that I mean just the the construction industry in general there's going to be

a lot of people aging out in these coming years right and then they're going to need people to fill those roles

so you say you're not training your replacement but at the same time there's going to be a point where you're like yes I want to train you because I need

to get off my knee I need a replacement yeah I I like I need someone to replace

these skills or else you know there's going to be a void there there I think I

think there's a big lack in training the Next Generation anyways just because of that notion of I don't want to train my

my replacement and it it happens a lot not even just like in the flooring

industry if you go to like the serving industry any kind of like mechanic yeah

mechanics or like special trait you do with your hands in a sense people are afraid of losing their clients afraid of

giving up the edge that they have that they work so hard to get to so and and and that's the that's the hard

part about any line of work that you're in right like if you're if you're in the line of business where you feel that

you're training your replacement then maybe you're you're not working with the right group maybe maybe you need to to

work with someone who is going to allow the growing or who wants to grow with you and I think the hardest thing to

recognize is that when you're training someone you

you you're training them in hopes that they do take over um one at least one of your disciplines

one of your skill sets that you have because then it frees you up to focus on other things whether it's personal growth or business growth you got to

look at it like that you they're alleviating some of my stresses so that way I can focus on other things as well

and then if you have the right people they grow with you but a lot of people get mad

like you train someone and they're really good and they have hand skills soft skills uh chances are that you know

you got a what what a entrepreneur right entrepreneur like you

can't it doesn't matter what you do what you teach them they're eventually going to leave anyway um and build something

for themselves unless they have no reason to leave but which that's very hard to do but well I had a lot of Pride

when I train you know I have three or four guys that make a living in this industry because I trained them so I

don't care they never replaced me like I replaced my current self at that moment

anyway you you know I kept trying to strive for more anyhow the only way you're going to get replaced is if

you're stuck in the mud yourself so continue your own training continue your own uh um uh advancement if you are an

absolute expert in one field May or in one discipline maybe pick up a second

discipline I mean there's ways that you can continue to outpace anybody that's

going to try to replace you and you ought to have pride that you've trained somebody to have a skill that can put

food on table for their family I have a lot of we're look at it in terms of so

um there's a guy you know we're still really close with and he was one of the people that when I started he was

teaching me and it it's you know to the point now where you know we're still

really good friends you know he'll he'll come in here we'll talk he'll do some jobs for us and he'll straight up say

I'm so proud of what you've done and he he never looked at it like I was trying

to take his stuff he never looked at said it like this is my competition he's like he did he he taught me whatever he

knew and now it's to the point where he's like I'm so proud of everything that you've done like I never would have

thought when you were I don't know 14 years old that this is where you'd be but this is awesome and that that's we

need more people like that yes yeah yeah be proud of training somebody and and

giving them the set of skills that you know puts food on their table and gives them a life uh you know a skilled trade

that they can take anywhere I mean that's that's one of the one of the key benefits of learning a a skilled trade

and being expert level at it I don't care where you go I mean I could just I

could move to any place in this nation and within a few days have a job still

yet today I have enough skill left in these old hands to be able to figure that out you know like you have there's

a sense of security to know I can still go do that no matter what you know

um so train the Next Generation be proud to train the Next Generation be proud to

be one of them that that expand the industry in that way there's no shortage of of uh people there's no shortage of

the need let me put it that way there's a shortage of people there there's no shortage of need so you're not going to

train uh a replacement as long as you're outpacing uh and trying to get better

yourself all the time anyway I mean I know tile guys that have trained multiple other Tile Guys and and we've

given uh the new these guys when they go out on their own work but they're never going to get the same work that we give

you know that core guy I don't think what a lot of people really understand is when

you're training that person and you're going back through the steps yourself you're refining your skills on that

particular subject when you're teaching those basic skills so that new person that's a really good point that is a

really good point yeah and so when was it was that this week or last week when we started doing the NCT last week last

week so we started doing um the NCT substraight and subf floor class just

put it up up here and we all watched the video together right um and then we all

did the test but it it really it was nice because we can pause the video and

explain this is what they're talking about this is you know real world example or or really refine it right

because I enjoyed it because a lot of this I a lot of the stuff is like you watch it one time you take the test and

then it's done you'll probably never you know think about it again but you you do

pick up that that little bit and in order to for for them to gain the knowledge I'm over there learning right

alongside with them again and I mean

I think one of the issues too is that a lot of people don't like the classroom setting so that's why we're doing stuff

out on the job site with our hands and stuff right but it's still it doesn't matter you know what

industry you're in it's necessary because you need that along with your hand skills in order to to be the full

package well I thought it helped to just doing that together because it uh it helps us see that like you don't know

everything yourself like you don't have everything together like we think you do because like learning from you guys we

kind of paint the picture of oh they're the goat they know how to do everything so even close to the truth so

like they don't fail they don't do this they do that oh I didn't know that you guys were perfect like when we're learning and they're like oh you did

that wrong but it's just scenarios right so so like um everybody has their strengths and

weaknesses Daniel he's way better at quoting uh specifics for standards and

and like almost verbatim out of the book I'm not like that I will change the verbiage the wording so that way I

understand it and also so that way you understand it you understand it differently than he does Paul understands it differently than all of

us right so it's a matter of finding that that correlation and relation for whoever the crowd is and whoever you're

teaching right and that's where learning from multiple different people um has a benefit um even if it is the same

discipline so that that's you know I find it I find it a little interesting that the topic is coming together you

know kind of bringing the industry as one and we we end up on training and

communication right not not because we came off of the topic it's because it's so core to the topic so core and so

important to that we are one right and it's not I'm Gonna Keep all these secrets it's I'm gonna sit there and I'm

going to learn with you and the knowledge that I give you and the knowledge that we're learning together I hope you take that and

expand on that and be better than I ever was right that that's the goal in every

think of it in terms of kids you always want your kid to be better than you did you should always want the person that

you bring in the industry to be better than you are 100% so I mean crystal is a

great example I mean like people talk crap to me all the time oh Daniel who

you know Crystal's better than you 100% like he's better than me and that was the goal the whole time that's a pride

moment yeah yeah that that's what's important so training uh having pride in the people that you are training that

their success is really the success of you as a teacher you as an individual and a human uh and the way that you care

about other people and and U so like their success is your success uh I I

encourage everybody to um and I only mention this because a I I I witnessed

it myself when I got in the industry and I still see it on as a um a thing out in

the you know Facebook world uh someday we're going to do I think in 2024 some

of these uh review Facebook comments and and comment on them but uh that could be

fun but the the point is is that still is there this this this idea that I'm

going to train my replacement so I don't want to teach them right well or I don't want to teach them too

much it again just to reiterate if you're always improving you won't get

outpaced and your your pride ought to be in how well you're teaching someone else

um and your pride ought to be at how good they are you have pride in what you guys have taught Crystal and how

Crystal's picked up on the industry and how good she is I mean we all know and if you don't know she's pretty eff and

good uh she you know competes on a national level at the installation

competition so um but that's that's a moment of Pride that's a thing that that should be

a good thing not that you're training your baby sister to to take over your job you know like I I don't quite get

that and so I get a lot of uh Pride out of the guys that I've been able to teach I get Pride when uh you know our hourly

staff we we can we've sent them to trainings and they've gotten to increase their earning potential because of that

so uh yeah that's that's what we mean when we're talking about coming together as one and and building the industry the

strength of the installation Community from a uh skill and ability perspective

and uh respect uh for one another we can build a great industry it starts with us

interacting together starts with communication and people stepping out and doing some stuff that you know isn't

done I I don't know how many flooring podcasts there are I know there's a few but we're we're darn consistent and uh

we've been what episode we on we are on 78 or something 77 I think 77 so 77 it's

a good number 77 weeks like7 in a row and uh not in a row almost in a row

close two in a row uh but we've missed very few um as a whole group I mean when

you consider that so um our percentage we're here to we're here to uh freely

give we hope we help and um you know let's band together almost like

brothers and sisters and uh you know continue to improve our industry overall

right and this is that that podcast right where it's like a lot of us do the same things but this is like get with if

you don't do hard tile get with a hard tile guy and you know take him to lunch or invite them over you know we we had

here yesterday and it's like it it's always great conversation because it's like we don't do the same

thing but we all need each other like if I if I'm if I'm quoting

something and I don't have someone to do that I'm already out of contention if the if the bid isn't broken up right

yeah so it's like get those and that's why we call them Partners it's I'm never going to bring anyone and say that yeah

this is my subcontractor this is what they're going to be doing because um it was one of the construction companies

that we do a lot of work for and they're like we're going to stop calling people Subs because that a sub is a lower tier

right we're not trying to say that you guys are less than us so they started calling us trade Partners so that's

where we get you know a lot of a lot of our stuff from is learning from the the larger company so so we're calling

everyone Partners come be our partner because without you I wouldn't be able to do it in some cases without me you

wouldn't be able to do it so let's partner up together and we still you know we still partner up with some of

the bigger companies around here and do labor only because um one it's because

our our relationship with them is Rock Solid but because we know that we have a certain skill set that not everyone has

so it's in the best interest for us to do it for that for that customer knowing

that your job is going to get done right and you know like just like everyone

else in business we're here to make some money so like those dollars have to to be right and

yeah we can all partner and become one together I mean this this is uniting

everyone uh we had epoxy guys in here and they've they've done a few jobs for

us and uh one of the the companies will call me just and he'll be like and those

epoxy guys are the best guys that I've ever used hands down I say I'm glad you

like them we love them too like they're gonna continue you know being our partner and they they'll come they came

in here you know and started asking us questions just like we're sitting across the table from each other right now just

sharing information because not everyone knows everything and if we can help them

the little bit that we do know that's what we want to do well yeah let's let's all lift each other up and and move on

and like there there's this is such a great industry and there's so many great people in it it's it's in our best

interest to start looking at at each other all Partners I think uh what helps

with that is getting around each other right um

often you know keyboard Warriors you know are very much on their own you know

what I'm saying like they're they're out in their own bubble get out come meet you know we go to just about all the

shows and uh come meet us but meet all the other people that we're talking

about I mean we we get a lot of Knowledge from like the old timers you know Sim and sunny and these guys that

are in the industry that you can just tap into and they what's great about oh

man that is what is great about some of the old-timers uh they don't install anymore but man will they give you the

knowledge you know if you just ask them they just want to they want to share it before you know before they're off into

the sunset you know what I mean and so get getting around one another and and

networking it's another thing I don't think we do very good as an install Community is network and last night was

proof that it can happen and that people can be happy doing it there was competitors in the room there was trade

Partners in the room there was different uh Talent levels there was different uh

disciplines everything and it was a great conversation uh and it was enjoyable so

like you know join in like get out in the commun in your uh you know join in with the install Community join this

podcast uh if you're watching us on YouTube or one of the social channels you know

comment give us a like subscribe what if you guys have like uh one week a month where you be like a expert installer

week and you have one of those old guys come out and just share the knowledge because you said that they want to so much like you know that they want have

the drive to teach the youth teach the upand cominging get them on the stage give them that chance to because there

usually isn't a chance to yeah the the uh that's a great idea and and where

were you yesterday when we were talking about the podcast T I'm just joking no that's that's

really um that's a good idea and we we'll probably do that this this uh

this4 you know bring it's almost we we start calling like 2024 season two right

yeah we we don't think about that because we are the old in some cases we are the oldtimers

but those guys uh it would be great to have some of those guys on we've had some of them on but

specifically uh driven that uh Q&A would be a cool one like getting on and

tapping into a a Sim or someone like that or you know sunny or any of the

even if you have to bring those young installers to ask those questions that they're always free to attend yeah

participate well just like like when you go to networking events that's what you kind of see is the

installers kind of keep to themselves and not want to be

really social like that and I think that's one of the downfalls of like when you look at CFI convention and stuff

because from the outside looking in yeah it looks like they're all friends I'm not trying

to go over there and talk to them but once you start talking to them they're open arms like it's like they some of

them friends some of them are friends like and and that's the big will to put yourself out there right it all started

from somewhere right where we didn't know them and now when we show up somewhere it's come in yeah like we're

hugging we're all friends now it's those conversations have to start somewhere and you just have to be comfortable

enough to to put yourself trust me it's not it's not as scary as you think and and people are more apt to um engage

with you if you just take a take a step say hi um see it whether it's CFI or you

know getting around some of the CTF TI installers that you want to talk about

somewhat intimidating those guys can be like scary to talk to because they're

over here mudding walls and all this stuff if you watch them at some of the competitions and uh doing stuff we don't

even do in campas like some of the stuff that they train there and and test on we

don't even do that kind of stuff in in Camp i' I've talked to um who's the guy

that puts on mud Mario right and you know he's approached me as some tra CH he's like hey you going to come out here

and I was like I don't even do to he said still more than welcome yeah always a chance to learn something new yeah all

right well we're ending uh the time here or getting close to the end of time I

thought uh an interesting you know anytime we do these

podcasts and it by the way it's awesome to be here with you guys and and michig

it's been real rewarding s snowed yeah snowed especially for

um but the the the camaraderie that you

guys have with a lot of the trade Partners is admirable and and people do respect what you guys have done in the

industry what you're doing in the industry so I encourage everybody to kind of have that helping hand with one

another um you know it's it's Unique we a lot of times we are so combative uh

but truth is embrace one another I've I've done a lot of traveling and talking

to other flooring companies and I've learned that if um you know those those

Partnerships with your your installation Community it that is the real key to me

on a really good flooring company and and and uh kind of the differentiating

factor it's it's apparent the the people that are doing really uh good things

whether it's in training or they they their company's growing or they're doing

they're making um uh new strides in the industry it's always the ones who are

are at the shows that I've been to they're they're part of the community so I encourage you if you're just getting

started into flooring particularly you started a new flooring company or you're a new installer get around like-minded

people that that is I mean business people tell you this all the time like

you're the sum of the five people that you hang out with the most so I I would encourage you to get around other

successful people in our industry chat with them uh get the you know the goods

and bads a lot of us will tell you the mistakes we've made we've been pretty transparent on this podcast over the

year over a year now uh doing it that you know we're we weren't perfect we're

still not perfect and we make mistakes and we're somewhat transparent about that so you know hopefully we can all

grow together and uh you know again one more thing today's the last day for the

Sim that was yesterday that was y today's Tuesday sorry yesterday Sim closed so I think we had

17 or 17 or 18 um entries and so uh

we'll be announcing that here next month and uh so best of luck to everybody who

uh who uh you know uh entered into that drawing or into that scholarship and uh

yeah it's a really great training so again if you're watching us on any of the socials if you'll give us a you know

we love the comments we want to hear from you guys consider giving us a like And subscribe as well and it's been a

pleasure gentlemen yeah and if you are on the fence um of going to a trade show ties is right around the corner if you

are introverted or think that you're going to go and just feel out of place us up reach out to us we can introduce

you to whoever we know we can introduce you to the other introverts you guys can introvert in

groups but yeah I mean you're more than welcome to come hang out we're we'll probably be focused on the installation

competition again this year since baby sister is gonna be in it oh yeah but we'll be around I'm gonna we got a new

camera to play with you guys can't call her baby sister she's our baby sisters

everyone calls her baby sister all right guys as well uh we'll shut this down for the day thanks everybody out in the

audience for joining us and um we will see you guys next week thank you

everyone all right [Music]

guys